1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a therapeutic, portable bed assembly provided with a heating system and more particularly, to a portable water heating bed including a base member, a serpentine configured water pipe extending through the base member, and a water heater, whereby the portable water heating bed assembly can warm a person lying on a pad on the bed by circulating hot water in the water pipe through the water heater attached to the base member.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various types of water heating beds are well known in the art. Such prior art water heating beds include a separate water heating system and a fixed base bed communicating with to the water heating system through a water pipe as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 17,102 to Lefebure, 825,763 to Schaefer, 1,121,277 to Mitchell, and 1,817,277 to Uhlig.
Also, various types of water heating pads are well known in the art. Such prior art water heating pads include a water pipe disposed therein and a separate or composite electric heater for heating the water disposed in the pad as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,114,620 to Moore et al, 4,149,541 to Gammons et al, 4,561,441 to Kolodziej, and 4,884,304 to Elkins.
However, such prior art devices suffer from a number of problems such as, for example, (a) it is very difficult to move the bed with the heating system, (b) it is complicated in structure such as a separate water tank, a separate heater, etc., (c) it is not expected to achieve a treatment effect for the human body, and (d) it is inconvenient to move due to a separate water heater from the bed compared with a bed having a water heater of the present invention.
In order to avoid the above described problems, the present inventors have filed U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/788,229, filed Nov. 4, 1991 and now U.S. Pat. No. 5,146,633 which relates to a therapeutic, portable bed including an electric water heating system attached to and disposed within a base member of the bed, a hollow headboard of the bed, which functions as a water tank, a serpentine configured water pipe extending through a concrete plate of the base member, and a cotton pad member containing mugwort herb, disposed on a laminated paper cover on the concrete plate, whereby the bed can be easily moved and a vapor from the cotton pad can warm and treat the human body lying on the bed.
The present inventors have also filed U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/864,854, filed Apr. 7, 1992, relates a therapeutic, portable folding chair provided with a heating system, which includes a base member, a serpentine configured water pipe, a hollow top portion of the back which functions as a water tank, a water heater attached to and disposed within the base member, and a mugwort herb pad disposed on the base member, whereby the folding chair can be easily moved and a vapor generated from the pad heated by the water pipe through the water heater warms and treats the human body sitting thereon or lying on a bed converted from the folding chair. However, these therapeutic, portable beds have some disadvantages such as, for example, it is complicated to have a water tank in a headboard and a chair back, and it is difficult to transport since these beds are heavy.